Before
by Lunamaris321
Summary: Daine and Cloud, before Wild Magic, come home to find that disaster has struck in their absence.


A/N: I am not giving up on Believe. Chapter six is being beta-ed and chapter seven is being written. This is just a short story that came to me, and I couldn't focus properly on my schoolwork until I'd written it down. It takes place before Wild Magic.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did, I'd get Numair to somehow transport me to Tortall so I could become a lady knight myself. As it is, I'm reduced to pitiful dreams.

**Before**

"Cloud? Come on, let's go. Bye, "

The speaker was a slim girl with blue-gray eyes. Her smoky brown curls tumbled across her shoulders, though they were held back by a scarf tied neatly around her head. She looked to be about thirteen. She mounted the pony with ease and trotted off into the mist. It was still early, but she was eager to get home.

Why do we have to leave, Daine? The pony asked testily. I wanted to sleep!

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right," Daine said softly, trying not to let her unease creep into her voice.

Cloud caught on anyway. What can have happened to your dam? You just stayed up too late last night. You shouldn't have kept talking to those two-leggers.

"Lory 'n Rand are nice!" Daine protested.

At least they don't shun you, like those other two-leggers. But they still shouldn't have kept you up. Then you wouldn't be haring off at the crack of dawn, keeping me from _my_ sleep.

"Oh, be quiet, Cloud. You're always grumpy in the morning."

They were silent for a while. It was a long ride, after all, and, as Cloud had pointed out, it was quite early. It left Daine to do some thinking about the night before. Lory and Rand trusted her, which was more than the villagers would ever do. It wasn't her fault she didn't know her father! _I wish they accepted me,_ Daine thought wistfully. _I wish I belonged. _

What's wrong? Cloud asked, jerking Daine out of her thoughts.

"I just don't feel like I have a place here. In Snowsdale, I mean."

That's because you don't. You're not a stupid two-legger, even if you look like one. You're People. Find a nice pack of People to live with. Or a herd. Whatever you like. The People will care for you better than those bleaters ever could.

Somehow Daine didn't think that was the solution. "How could I do that? What would happen to Ma, and Grandda? Who would hunt for them?"

Just then the path opened onto a clearing. At the center stood a house. But it didn't look like the house Daine remembered from the morning before, when she had said goodbye to her ma. The upper story was black, as though it had been burned. Animal bodies littered the ground outside, and the henhouse had been torn down.

Daine froze, staring in shock. Then she came to her senses, vaulted off Cloud, and ran to the door. On the step lay Mammoth, her dog. He was bleeding profusely from a deep wound in his side. "Goddess, Mammoth! What happened?"

The dog's mind-voice was weak. Bandits came. They attacked the house and tried to take your ma, but we all fought. Everyone tried to kill them for hurting us except the rabbits. But they're all dead. Most of the two-leggers got away, but they killed the People.

Tears welled up in Daine's eyes, but didn't fall. "Thank you, Mammoth. Thank you for everything." She put her hands gently on Mammoth's flank, taking care not to hurt him. Wildly she looked around for something to staunch the bleeding, but as she did, Mammoth drew a shuddering breath and lay still.

Daine stood and walked shaking into the cottage, fearing what she would find there. The kitchen, warded by charms made from Sarra's Gift, hadn't burned. In the middle, face down, lay Daine's ma. She too had several wounds, and Daine nearly slipped on the bloody floor. Biting back the urge to vomit, she knelt next to her ma.

"Ma, come on, wake up!" Daine moaned. "This isn't funny."

Daine, she's gone. Cloud's voice was the gentlest she'd ever heard, but this time the pony was wrong. Sarra wasn't dead; of course not. It was her mother. If Sarra was gone, Daine had nothing left in the world. No family but Cloud.

Daine waited and waited for Sarra's back to rise, but it didn't happen. Slowly, as though it were a mistake, a tear found its way down the bridge of Daine's nose to land on Sarra's face.

"No!" She collapsed on her mother's body, weeping uncontrollably. Cloud came up behind her, leaning down to nuzzle the girl.

Daine didn't know how long she lay there, unable to move. Eventually, however, she knew she had to bury her ma. She didn't even try to dry the tears from her eyes. There was still Grandda to find, and the rest of the People. Cloud's dam and sire were probably out there somewhere.

With the pony's help, Daine had a grave dug for her mother by the time the sun was at the top of the sky. She gently set her mother in, but not before carefully removing the handkerchief from her apron pocket. Miraculously, it was blood-free. Daine put her mother's handkerchief in her own skirt pocket and placed her own handkerchief over her mother's face, closing her eyes. She shoveled dirt in randomly, blinded by tears.

Sarra was truly gone. And it was all Daine's fault. If only she had been there, she could have fought the bandits. Part of her - the rational part - knew that one thirteen-year-old girl wouldn't have made a difference against a bandit party, but that part was overwhelmed by the guilt and sadness flooding her.

Daine and Cloud silently dug graves for Daine's grandda as well as Cloud's dam and sire, then more for the rest of the animals, including Mammoth. They pushed rocks over the spots to stop scavengers, carving wooden markers to tell who lay where. It took all that day and the next, plus the morning of the third day. Around midday, a party of villagers showed up to what was left of the farm.

In the lead was Hakkon Falconer. He had been kind to Daine in the past, but she didn't remember. All she could think of was that, all this time, Daine and her pony had been mourning their losses alone. The villagers hadn't even come to see what happened to their healer, her daughter, and her father.

"Get out!" Daine screamed. "I don't want you here! You don't care, so get out." She picked up rocks and threw them with disturbing accuracy at the approaching people, considering her hysterical shrieks. She forgot that she was a thirteen-year-old girl against a party of possibly armed men and women. If she couldn't get the bandits who caused this, at least she could hurt the villagers who had, for the most part, made her life hell for as long as she could remember. The villagers who hadn't bothered to come see if Sarra could be saved.

At first they tried to reason with her, but it was useless. The party left in short order, but not before Daine saw the murderous gleam in Hakkon's eye as he declared her possessed.

She had to get out of here.

She would find the wolf pack. _They_ would help her. She could get revenge on the bandits who had killed her ma. "Come on, Cloud. Let's go."

Without a backward glance, she turned down a path away from the one the villagers had taken, her pony following close behind, to become pack-sister.

**&&&&&&**

A/N: I really don't like this as much as some others, but what do you think? Please review and let me know. And now I'll go work on the next chapter of Believe. It should be up soon, so _please_ don't give up on me! I love you all!

**Lunaterra**

P.S. This isn't beta-ed. All mistakes are mine, and mine alone. Ha! I do own something!


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